Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 13,646 Shares of Guardant Health, Inc. $GH

Key Points

• Teachers Retirement System of Kentucky cut its Guardant Health stake by 9%, selling 13,646 shares and now owns 137,471 shares (about 0.11% of the company) valued at $14.04 million.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish—20 Buys, 1 Hold and 1 Sell—with a MarketBeat consensus price target of $125.20, and several firms recently raised targets to around $135.
• Insiders sold 8,596 shares (~$775,767) in the last quarter (including the CFO's 3,000-share sale), while GH trades near $88.91 with a 52-week range of $36.36–$120.74 and a market cap of $11.66 billion.

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky cut its stake in shares of Guardant Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:GH - Free Report) by 9.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 137,471 shares of the company's stock after selling 13,646 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky owned about 0.11% of Guardant Health worth $14,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of GH. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in Guardant Health during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Chesapeake Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in Guardant Health in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new position in shares of Guardant Health in the fourth quarter worth approximately $43,000. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its stake in shares of Guardant Health by 153.5% in the third quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 768 shares of the company's stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 465 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $129.00 price target on shares of Guardant Health in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on Guardant Health from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Guggenheim increased their target price on Guardant Health from $115.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. TD Cowen increased their target price on Guardant Health from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Guardant Health in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $125.20.

Insider Activity at Guardant Health

In related news, CFO Michael Brian Bell sold 3,000 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction on Monday, March 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.04, for a total value of $261,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 43,601 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,795,031.04. The trade was a 6.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Musa Tariq sold 348 shares of Guardant Health stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.09, for a total value of $30,655.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 8,394 shares of the company's stock, valued at $739,427.46. The trade was a 3.98% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 8,596 shares of company stock valued at $775,767 in the last quarter. 6.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Guardant Health Price Performance

Shares of GH stock opened at $88.91 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $90.98 and a 200-day moving average price of $95.76. Guardant Health, Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.36 and a 52 week high of $120.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.66 billion, a PE ratio of -26.86 and a beta of 1.64.

Guardant Health (NASDAQ:GH - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported ($0.50) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.43) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $281.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $269.74 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.62) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 39.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Guardant Health, Inc. will post -2.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Guardant Health Profile

Guardant Health, Inc is a precision oncology company specializing in blood-based cancer diagnostics. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, the company develops non-invasive tests that use circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) to profile genomic alterations in patients with solid tumors. Guardant Health's mission is to advance cancer care by providing actionable data to clinicians, pharmaceutical partners and researchers worldwide.

The company's flagship product, Guardant360, is a next-generation sequencing (NGS) assay designed to detect mutations, copy number variations and select fusions in more than 70 cancer-related genes.

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